🎉Today we are flying overseas! Woot woot! 🎉
In this travel series, I'll focus on my first Canton Fair experience. You'll see me working. Tho I doubt you'd actually see me working because the entire time, I was just having fun while still getting the work done. It's not black and white. You can enjoy and be serious about work and deliver what's required or at times, even beyond.
Shall we fly now? Fly with me! ✈
The country's new gem
That year Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) opened its Terminal 2 for all International Departures to and from Cebu. I was excited to see it for the first time. I've been in and out of Mactan Airport but only at the old and only terminal in MCIA before.
It was 3:30 am when I arrived at the airport. Not too long after, Aileen from Purchasing arrived, too. The rest of the delegation arrived a few minutes later.
MCIA is said to be built out of the culture and tradition of Cebu and its neighboring Provinces in Visayas. Two specific features that I can't help but be amazed with are (1) the colorful front glass wall. The design of the wall was patterned from parol or christmas lantern.
The second amazing feature can be seen once you get inside the terminal. You can't help but stop and look at these wooden arches. It embodies freshness, a characteristic of any tropical country like ours.
When we were complete (there's five of us), we checked in all our baggages. We brought spare luggage for samples we might get from the Canton Fair.
Then time for imigration! It's not my first international flight for work but I'm still afraid of the imigration. 😱 They have all the power to offload anyone they think doesn't pass their judgment. Gladly, everyone successfully went through this process.
All we had to do was wait for the boarding time. I represented Sales, there were two representatives from Marketing and two from Puchasing.
The sun was slowly rising outside shedding light towards everyone inside the boarding area. I'm particularly happy that this is finally happening!
Then, we're inside the plane! Our flight's at 6 am so there's no way we could get breakfast before that. Upon booking the flight, breakfast meal was already included. It was so so but definitely better than not having anything to eat.
We're here!
After just three hours of air travel, we finally landed at Hongkong International Airport.
I understand that wasting time ain't in the vocabulary of executives, businessmen. Honestly tho, I don't want to travel the way executives do. I don't want fun to be out of the picture. Well, I want to see myself as an executive one day but certainly not the type who just work to the point of burnout. And that's probably why I still get to enjoy this work trip because I chose to see it as fun and as full of adventure as if I'm not here for work at all.
It was my first time in Hongkong. I couldn't hide how grateful I am to experience everything for free! To see new things, infra and everything in between. Really glad Aileen came, too! We took turns in taking photos of each other.
In transits
We rode a taxi from Hongkong International Airport to Hung Hom Station. That's about 33 km of land travel via taxi. Here are few snaps I took while on that taxi ride:
We arrived at the station and we waisted no time, got our tickets for Guangzhou and off we went inside the train.
The next photos might be blury, but all smiles out as I ride my first ever travel via train! Sorry, this might be something small to everyone but not to me. I had to document every minute of it! 😍
Yup, including the lines while waiting for our turn to get inside! Haha 😂
And finally, we're in our seats! Aileen and I sat beside each other, which made everything less nervous.
I was particularly excited to experience how it'd feel inside a moving train. "Will I feel the pressure of the train moving at a high speed?" Questions like this bombarded my mind.
By almost 1 in the afternoon we arrived in Guangzhou, China. That's 2 hours of train ride from Hongkong.
We went through imigration all over again and finally met the other people we will be going with in the Canton Fair. We arrived a day before the event because as you could see it took us almost 8 hours just to reach Guangzhou from Cebu.
Together with the China Team, we had our very late lunch. I've heard from my workmates who've been here before that food in China ain't tasty. But this food (whatever it's called, I wasn't the one who ordered) tasted heaven! I particularly like the spicy kick at the end of every bite. Yum!
It was a gloomy day outside of the train station but the huge towering glass buildings did all the magic. The streets were clean and it looked nice everywhere I look. I had a different expectation.
We arrived at the hotel by 3:20 PM. We booked the hotel in advance. It's not a smart move to not book a hotel during the Canton Fair season. I heard all hotels including the small ones are usually fully booked. Good thing our rooms were only waiting for us!
We didn't stay in a fancy hotel. It'll be of no use since we'd be using the room for sleeping only. The rest of the day we're out and working our asses off.
I'm excited to share more about my Guangzhou Trip for the Canton Fair that I attended a few years back! Have you been to Canton Fair or any other international fair before?
Have a great Thursday evening everyone! 🌃😁
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